DANCE / NOT DANCE:

Abstract

Dance is a kinetic, communal, expressive, and body-based art form. Yet, in 2020, contemporary choreography maintains a tendency towards alienating audiences through its combination of movement, subject matter, and presentation style removed from everyday experience. Collective action, affective environments, non-verbal communication, rhythm, momentum, musicality, and connection to the physical world are all facets of dance practice that have relevance to contemporary living, yet are often excluded from the public experience of dance. As we face increasingly virtualized relationships, opportunities for embodied and real-time connections are necessary to ground our thinking and actions in knowledge and care. My work intends to bring to the foreground aspects of the dance/choreography tradition that are embedded in the training and practice, but that don’t always make it to the stage; sharing them with audiences to bring forward these neglected aspects, that I think are vital for our contemporary condition.